An Analysis Of 'In Bed' By Joan Didion

When writing her personal essay “In Bed”, author Joan Didion intended it for an audience very familiar with migraines, however, it has the potential to be written for an audience of people just beginning to experience migraines. Didion’s use of personal anecdotes, factual information, and inspiring acceptance are all points that can be altered for this new audience.
Didion begins her essay with personal accounts of her experiences with migraines, setting the stage for an introduction that relates to newcomers. She describes the suffering in which she endures during her migrains, composed of imagery that brings the reader into her situation. Where she begins with stating that she “spend[s] the day in bed with a migraine”, she could instead present this as a question to the reader.

This would be further reinforced when she goes into details about the effects of the migraine, which the reader could also relate to. When Didion then states that there is “nothing wrong with [her] at all”, she could word it to be a warning to the reader. By adding “and there won’t be anything wrong with you, either” would cause her to be speaking directly to the reader, comforting them that although the doctors may not find something wrong, there actually is a problem. She then describes how she continued her life, “ignor[ing] the warnings it sent”, instead of trying to fix the problem. While she presents this example as one that can be learned from, she could still present it in a more direct way to this new audience. Instead, Didion could offer her warning by simply adding a “don’t do what I did”, which would then be a direct warning to the